First
employed by The World Conservation Strategy, a classic document
issued jointly by The World Conservation Union (IUCN), Worldwide
Fund for Nature (WWF) and the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), this powerful, though somewhat clumsy and mostly
untranslatable, coinage burst forth into the world at 10 am on 5th
March 1980, when the Strategy was launched simultaneously from
several capital cities of the world. At first, it was largely the
property of environmentalists and conservationists, who were under
pressure to integrate the human dimension in their thinking and
their action on the ground. For a time, it therefore carried a
somewhat non-mainstream connotation, of a slower, more deliberate
form of development, championed by those who put the interests of
nature before those of people.
Some
six years later, the Brundtland Commission (WCED) adopted the term
as the central tenet of its approach to creating a more socially
just and equitable world. To do this, the Commission’s report Our
Common Future stated that the fruits of economic growth must be
widely distributed and not be at the cost of nature or of future
generations. This led to a wider buy-in for the concept of
sustainable development, but largely restricted to the cognoscenti
among the reading and thinking public – the concept largely coming
to mean a more careful form of development, a development that is
both more equitable and less destructive.
After
yet another six years, at the United Nations Conference on
Environment and Development (UNCED, "The Earth Summit" at Rio de
Janeiro, 1992), the term finally came into its own – as the only
legitimate concept of development endorsed by hundreds of political
leaders from all over the world. It is now an integral part of the
lexicon of international discourse, and the next major event, held
in Johannesburg in 2002 was even called the World Summit on
Sustainable Development (WSSD). But therein lay the catch.
Presidents and Prime Ministers of countries, Heads of international
agencies, CEOs of multinational corporations, leaders of civil
society, conservationists, engineers and economists, each with a
totally different mindset, could only Donation whole-heartedly to
the same terminology if it meant very different things to different
constituencies. And therein also lies the huge strength and the
fundamental weakness of this term.
The
fact is that each constituency has its own definition of what
sustainability means. At one end, it means strict caps on economic
growth. Some even believe that economic growth and sustainability
are inherently a contradiction. At the other, it means "sustainable
competitive advantage", a means for the corporate world to continue
doing what it does best – making money, with a cursory glance over
the shoulder to keep ahead of the pursuing environmentalists. In
between, there are those who believe that the current patterns of
development cannot lead either to eradication of poverty or to
ecological security. Fundamental shifts may be needed in our
consumption patterns and production systems, but these are not
beyond the realm of possibility before it is too late.
And
yet, it is the very ambiguity inherent in the term that makes it
possible for many of these constituencies to sit at the same table
and talk to each other, groping towards some basic consensus over
the long run.
Ultimately, there can be little doubt that the world will have to
change. For how long can the present levels of poverty,
marginalization, environmental destruction and alienation (caused by
both excessive deprivation and excessive affluence) be sustained?
So, what could be a useful and universally acceptable definition of
the term? How can the insights of sustainable development, which by
incorporating the element of time and space, brings together the
inextricably linked issues of change, intra- and inter-generational
equity and conservation be transformed into meaningful action on the
ground?
We
believe the integrating concept that can give real meaning to the
term sustainable development is that it creates sustainable
livelihoods for all.